Below the Peak (Sola)(16)
Nikolas eyes darkened. “The rain has lessened, let’s go back,” Nikolas said tersely instead, already stepping back under the drizzling sky. Nikolas didn’t say a word as they walked back up the street. His mood seemed to darken with each step he took to where they headed.
****
Murisa Kingdom
It has been over two and a half months since Isabel left and still she hadn’t returned. No word came from her either. It made Nara slightly worried and wonder if she was alright. The spring season was ending as summer prepared to arrive. Life at the military quarters remained the same. Training day in and training day out. The first days without Isabel made the atmosphere between Nara and Risa awkward, to say the least. Both girls could feel the void their friend had left with her absence. They still sat together during breakfast, lunch and dinner hours yet spoke little to each other. Nara committed herself to focus on becoming the best soldier there ever was by working hard through the practice times even after when they were done for the day. With it, her body didn’t stop accumulating a few bruises here and there. When Nara looked at herself in the mirror, she saw someone new from the reflection. Her body was not only hardening but her mind too.
When the sun began to burn the sky for long hours so did the rigorous work she and other recruits performed. They learned to make traps. Their bodies were pushed to the limits through brutal activities that span from patrolling all day and night, scaling walls, facsimile activities. The real test came one night she had been patrolling the small village just outside the capital city’s gates. Nara had just come out from taking a piss in the smelly public latrine when she had heard the commotion. Head snapping, she stared into the dark woods and listened carefully to the rustlings that came from it. Brows creasing, she slowly drew near. The rustling in the woods also increased. Someone yelled loudly, the clang sounds of swords followed. Her left hand reached for the short sword on her side, her fingers ghosting over its hilt. Nara withdrew it when a man in dark clothes jumped out, his back to her as he fought Lady Astrid. Not a second passed when two other people in similar dark clothing as the man came out too. Her eyes widened when the captain also emerged on the heels of the two strangers. He fought fiercely against them as did his opponents. Nara quickly came to conclusion they weren’t fooling around when the captain cut one of the two on the shoulder and blood started to drip down his arm to the ground. Assassins! She surmised.
Out of nowhere, a fourth assassin appeared behind the captain, but this one had been limping. He had an arrow sticking out his leg.
She knew rightly what his intentions were before he had the chance to act. She did not think, she just threw the dagger she keeps nicely tucked on her waist. The knife found a home on the man’s skull, blood coating the small blade as the man dropped dead on the ground. Looking unaffected of what she just did, she made use of the sword in her hand effectively. It wasn’t until much later after all laid dead and where one had plunged the captain's sword intentionally into his own chest rather than reveal who had sent them, did the realisation hit her hard in the gut. I killed a man. Nausea rolled from her stomach to her throat and made her feel ill.
“I just killed…” Nara didn’t get to finish, she abruptly bent over and vomited until there wasn’t anything left to puke other than the bitter taste left on her tongue. It was Captain Barra who walked toward her, stood over her trembling body and clipped. “Get it together. Congratulation on becoming an Elite.”
Chapter Six.
Kalil Kingdom
The carved word Midnight on the flat wood blared at him, burning to the back of his skull. The dim lantern hanging above shone down on him as if in warning, once he stepped inside the building he would never be pure again. Nikolas stared at the door that hasn’t stopped swinging and creaking from welcoming men inside the famous brothel.
“This is not wise, my lord,” warned the disguised bodyguard beside him. “If they find out who you are and your father hears…”
“That is why you are here. Keep me safe and don’t let a word slip” Nikolas cut him off, fixing his hat once more to hide. He walked in. The first time he entered a brothel and this because he owed his curiosity to this one girl. No. A woman. A woman he couldn’t stop thinking of, or stop her invading his dreams. The brothel turned out to be what he had imagined would be. The room is dark except for the dimly lit candles to hide the immoralities of the people it housed. Raucous men drinking at the bar served by a busty old woman, with breasts threatening to spill from the confines of a dress that barely held together by its sewn threads. Scarcely clothed girls barely of age moving around to entertain the men sitting in the corners of the room. From what Gittan had told him, Nikolas expected to find that many of the men would be Muri. He could tell not just from their accent but from the lighter shade of their skin different from the golden skin tone of his people and arrogance they carried themselves in. The real surprise came from noticing the young women were all Kali. A man slapped one girl on the arse and laughed as she moved past him. Nikolas stared, not knowing what to feel. He felt angry. He felt shame. He looked down to the floor. I shouldn’t have come here. He should go back home.
He lifted his head, ready to order the man pretending to drink to follow him out when she walked in the room. Nikolas could hardly breathe. His eyes remained glued to her as she walked in front of him, moving graciously in a black lace silk dress that made the small part of her exposed back, arms and neck tantalising. She stopped at the bar and sat at the far end alone.